Filip Wiltgren | Filip Wiltgren

05 Aug

The Century-Old, Weird Puzzle-Book-Thing That Still Works

Banner Mouse Click In 1934 a man named Powys Mathers published a novel. A crime novel.

Nothing strange with that. Except that it’s not a novel as such. It’s a novel-puzzle. The pages, all 100-some of them, are printed out of order. It’s up to the reader to figure out the order, and solve the puzzle.

Fiendishly clever. And you need to be fiendishly clever to solve it – only a handful of people have…

Link: Cain’s Jawbone: how crime novel’s puzzling plot still keeps us guessing

29 Jul

The Man Who Killed 100 000 000 People

Banner: Movie click Do you know who’s the biggest murderer in the history of the world, in terms of raw numbers? Can you guess?

If you guessed Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Ghenghis Khan, or any of their ilk, you’re wrong.

The answer is Thomas Midgley Jr. An unimposing man, a chemist, who created a couple of widely used inventions, then got strangled by one.

Watch for yourself:

22 Jul

Why the Tank Isn’t Going Away

Banner: Movie click The tank is dead, long live the tank!

Well, not quite. The tank, a big, protected, fast vehicle with a big gun, isn’t going away anytime soon, no matter how many missiles, mines and other anti-tank weapons are developed.

Not because it’s indestructible, but because its so damned good at what it does. Take a look at The Chieftan’s analysis:

15 Jul

What if you Threw a Ball at the Spee of Light?

Banner Mouse Click So you’re standing there, not doing much, and you think: “hmm… what if I threw this here ball at the speed of light, wouldn’t that be cool?”

No, it wouldn’t. It would be very, very, very hot.

Here’s XKCD to explain it: https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

08 Jul

Will a Strong Enough Magnet Rip the Iron Out of Your Blood?

Banner: Movie click What would happen if you walked through an insanely powerful electromagnet? Would it rip the iron right out of your blood?

Well, it might – but not the way you think.

Also, matches are magnetic when burnt! Check it out:

01 Jul

The Amazing, Counter-Intuitive Way Phones Work

Banner: Movie click So you’re browsing this on your phone. Or your WiFi. Or anything that isn’t connected to a metal cable.

So is everyone else around you. Which shouldn’t be possible, considering the amount of radio wave frequencies, and the amount of users.

That’s where the amazing division and mathematical twits come in – now we get to share the same radio, at the same time, and no one is the wiser!

Watch the whole documentary:

24 Jun

The World’s Largest Sheet of Chain-Mail

Banner: Movie click Like the title say: the largest piece of chain-mail every created. And it’s there to protect a house.

From the rain.

You can’t make this things up. See the video:

17 Jun

Why Airlines Don’t Care About Economy Class

Banner: Movie click Ever wondered why airlines don’t do more for the economy class passengers, considering how much they do for the premium, business, and first class ones?

Money, plain and simple.

Because all of those economy class people aren’t worth diddly squat to the airlines…

10 Jun

Perennials – Growing Vegetables Year After Year

Banner: Movie click In Monty Python’s words: And now for something completely different.

Perennial vegetables, delicious, and very restful to watch.

06 Jun

Should You Give Up Writing?

Banner - pen Ever felt like you want to tell stories, but can’t? That you’re sitting down, starting something great, all those characters dancing in your mind, but two weeks and fourteen failed starts later, you have nothing to show for it?

Maybe you like the idea of writing, but you’re having trouble doing the work. Maybe you feel, or have heard, that writing is work, and it should feel like work, and you’re not liking that feeling.

Maybe it’s making you doubt whether you are a writer at all, or should be one, or should give it all up and try out for that competitive TV-watching team you’ve heard about.

No, you shouldn’t. Because you, and all those more-or-less well-meaning people on the internet, are looking at writing the wrong way. Read More →